Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Night Business | Issue 3 | Bergen Street Comics


If you happen to be in the neighborhood of the fine, Brooklyn comic book store, Bergen Street Comics, within the next 12 hours, or so, you'll find NIGHT BUSINESS, ISSUE 3, on the shelves, as pictured. You can find every issue of NIGHT BUSINESS and GANGSTA RAP POSSE at Bergen Street Comics as well as many other comic book titles.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Night Business | Issue 3 | The Factual Opinion


NIGHT BUSINESS, ISSUE 3, made the cut for Tucker Stone's "Comics Of The Weak" among others for this week's releases. Check it all out here and let the words tumble over your brain and be soothed and satisfied, while simultaneously becoming informed, in a way that only Tucker's writing can provide:
Torture can't stop Johnny. Torture is Johnny's fuel. Torture is how Johnny clambers up the side of a mountain of crates, torture is what gives Johnny the strength of character to execute, to seal-the-deal. And while the pimps and the slashers may seem to have the upper hand, while the streets of the city may be coated in a thick slime of blood, cum and some more blood as well as some beer, because fuck it, mama needs a beer if she's gonna dance for these sumbitches, ya'll out your cracker and curbing gums on the asphalt if you think anybody does this goddamned job sober, and yep, whoever you are, Monkey Dick, we all blame you ...

Night Business | Fascination Street Blog

NIGHT BUSINESS received a blog post over at the official Revival House Press blog, known as Fascination Street. Thanks to them. I really dig it when folks get what NIGHT BUSINESS is all about:
... [NIGHT BUSINESS is] a throwback to the media produced in good 'ole 1980's pre-Guiliani NYC. I'm talking films like Lucio Fulci's "Night Ripper" or William Lustig's "Maniac." As pastiche, Benjamin Marra's "Night Business" is violent and fun, complimented by the antiseptic drawing that really reinforces its ties to the deluge of black and white independent comics of the era. Even minor details, like the cheap paper stock of the book are represented ...
Check out the full post here, which also includes the trailer for Lucio Fulci's "The New York Ripper," which, I confess, I have not seen yet despite repeated recommendations from NIGHT BUSINESS readers.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Night Business | Issue 3 | FOR SALE!!


NIGHT BUSINESS, ISSUE 3, is now available for purchase at the TRADITIONAL COMICS shop. Check out the preview pages below ...

Friday, January 15, 2010

Diamond 5 Pages

Here are my pages for the upcoming issue of Diamond 5.

Jack Kirby Talking About Comics

I want to link to this blog post over on Comics Comics that includes a link to audio of Jack Kirby talking about his comics, how he works, his ideas about the craft and a few other things. There's also a transcription of some of what he says which I want to repost here (mostly for my own records):
Drawing a good figure doesn’t make you a good artist. I can name you ten men, right off the bat, who draw better than I do. But I don’t think their work gets as much response as mine. I can’t think of a better man to draw Dick Tracy than Chester Gould, who certainly is no match for Leonardo Da Vinci. But Chester Gould told the story of Dick Tracy. He told the story of Dick Tracy the way it should have been told. No other guy could have done it. It’s not in the draftsmanship, it’s in the man.
Like I say, a tool is dead. A brush is a dead object. It’s in the man.

If you want to do, you do it. If you think a man draws the type of hands that you want to draw, steal ‘em. Take those hands.

The only thing I can say is: Caniff was my teacher, Alex Raymond was my teacher, even the guy who drew Toonerville Trolley was my teacher. Whatever he had stimulated me in some way. And I think that’s all you need. You need that stimulation. Stimulation to make you an individual. And the draftsmanship, hang it. If you can decently: learn to control what you can, learn to control what you have, learn to refine what you have. Damn perfection. You don’t have to be perfect. You are never going to do a Sistine Chapel, unless someone ties you to a ceiling. Damn perfection.

All a man has in this field is pressure. And I think the pressure supplies a stimulation. You have your own stresses, that will supply your own stimulation. If you want to do it, you’ll do it. And you’ll do it anyway you can.



Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Best of 2009 | Night Business, Issue 2, & Gangsta Rap Posse, Issue 1


Night Business, Issue 2, and Gangsta Rap Posse, Issue 1, made it onto Tucker Stone's list of The Best Comics of 2009. They came in at numbers 21 and 22. Here's what Tucker had to say:

There's always a couple of comics that bubble up out of nowhere, comics that come bearing descriptions they seem incapable of living up to. Night Business & Gangsta Rap Posse--both the product of Benjamin Marra and his Traditional Comics publishing house--were those two. Could a Skinemax movie delivered in pure Paul Gulacy style really be that good? Did the comics landscape really need to see what would happen inside the wet dreams of an N.W.A. fan? That's what I was asking myself before I read them. Afterwards, all I wanted to know was why the hell these comics weren't being published on the sides of an army of blimps, all of which were hovering over every wi-fi capable coffeehouse in the country. This is how all contemporary fiction should read.
Reading those words felt like a mug of hot chocolate being dumped right over my heart while wearing a pair of very supportive briefs. Thank you very much, Mr. Stone. By the by, you can check out more of Tucker Stone's (and friend's) reviews and ideas on many things at his blog The Factual Opinion right here. And the other entries of his column, This Ship is Totally Sinking, right here.